CHAPTER 2 - JIM AND ROBIN SETTLE IN
The next day, the young couple had finished class, and Jim suggested a movie.
"Oh, no!" said Robin. "Look at the time - we must go home and get dinner prepared. Daddy expects his dinner to be ready exactly on time every night."
"Oh, damn!" exclaimed Jim. "Tell him that we had a late class."
"Daddy knows our class schedule," said Robin. "You can't fool him - and don't ever try!"
Reluctantly, Jim followed Robin and they hurried on home to his in-laws' house. Here they found Linda, his mother-in-law, already starting a pork roast in the oven.
"My goodness!" she exclaimed. "Where were the two of you? Hurry up now - your father will be home soon!"
Robin was directed to start the vegetables and Jim to set the dining room table. Of course, he did it all wrong, and his mother-in-law had to explain the proper way to set the table.
"The knife goes here - and the fork goes here - and the chairs must be set straight. Harry insists that everything must be done right!"
Jim was still setting things and snarling to himself when Harry came home from work. He greeted no one, only going into the bathroom to wash up. Swiftly, Linda and Robin put dinner on the table. Everything was ready!
Jim sat down. Robin hissed at him: "Get up!"
"Why?"
"Nobody is to sit until Daddy sits down first!"
Jim cursed to himself and stood up. They all waited until Harry appeared and took his seat at the head of the table. Then they sat down. Jim reached for the bread. Robin and Linda stared at him in horrified silence!
"Didn't nobody teach your hubby here no manners?" demanded Harry, carving knife in hand.
"Oh, Daddy!" pleaded Robin. "He didn't know that he's supposed to wait!"
Jim blushed. He found that Harry dominated dinner like an autocrat. He carved the roast pork. Plates were handed down toward him, which he filled with the amount of meat and vegetables that he decided was appropriate for each person. Jim's plate was the sparsest. You had to ask permission to take a piece of bread or to refill your glass. Jim hated the greasy, fattening food.
"Isn't there any salad?" he inquired.
Again there was a horrified silence!
"Sa-lad?" mocked Harry. "Does your hubby mean rabbit food? Tell him there ain't no rabbit food in this house - only good old-fashioned meat and potatoes - the kind that real MEN eat!"
Jim was mortified and only picked at his plate in silence for the rest of dinner. The only talk was a monologue by Harry, speaking as he ate dinner, damning liberals, homos, politicians, foreigners, and a host of others to the farthest reaches of Hell, a litany assented to by his wife and daughter with eager nods of their heads.
After dinner, Linda joined Harry in the living room to watch television while Jim and Robin had to clear the table, wash the dishes, put away the leftovers, and clean the kitchen before they could retire to their small bedroom at the back of the house to study for tomorrow's classes.
"That food was disgusting!" said Jim.
"But it's the kind of food that Daddy likes," said Robin, "So we must eat it too."
"Do we have to do this every night?"
"Why, yes," said Robin. "Except for Saturday when Daddy takes Mommy out to the diner."
"Great!" said Jim. "Then we'll have Saturday to ourselves!"
"Oh, no, silly," said Robin. "Saturday we have to clean the entire house!"
When they had finished studying, Jim was ready for some fun. He went to lock the bedroom door. Only - there was no lock!
"Daddy doesn't allow locks on any door except for his and Mommy's bedroom," Robin explained.
Jim was doubtful but closed the door, pushing a chair under the knob. He turned to Robin and said, "Let's party!"
"Oh, no!" said Robin. "It's eleven o'clock. That's when Daddy goes to sleep - and so must everyone else!"
"Why?" demanded Jim.
"Because we might wake him - so we all have to go to sleep when he goes to sleep!"
There was no persuading Robin differently, so she and Jim had to lie down and shut off the light. Jim went to sleep cursing his father-in-law silently.